On Thursday night, I headed out to Kings Place, London’s music hub near King’s Cross in the heart of town. Playing that night was South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini who released his third Blue Note LP “Unomkhubulwane” earlier this year. Most songs of the set were from this fascinating album which is full of trance-like…
This year’s EFG London Jazz Festival is my first. I always wanted to go since there is so much to be liked about this festival. First of all, obviously, the programming. This year is another one with an extremely diverse, versatile and eclectic array of artists too numerous to mention here. But what is also…
The sixth edition of this year’s Rockit Festival, located at Groningen’s SPOT, ended on Saturday night with a rousing, highly entertaining, and crazy set by MonoNeon. The bassist, whose real name is Dywane Thomas Jr. and who is known for his hilariously extravagant costumes, also released a pretty spacy Moog EP earlier this year called…
There are only a handful of pianists with such a virtuosic approach and diverse dynamics like Fred Hersch. Which he proved again last night at Spot in Groningen, the vibrant live venue in the heart of this equally bubbling city which doesn’t showcase its virtues on or above the surface, but rather more slightly under…
We’re currently on our way to the 6th edition of the Rockit Festival in beautiful Groningen. There have been a few changes and adds in the last weeks and we’re really looking forward to this year’s edition, our second visit to this great festival. Expect our report this Sunday. A day prior to the festival,…
Robert Glasper‘s “In December” originally came out last year exclusively on Apple Music. It is one of the must-have Christmas albums, not only because of Robert’s excellent playing and production work, but also because of the very special vocalists he enlisted to guest on his holiday album. A mini-medley of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman”…
Everything has been said about Quincy Jones in the last couple of days. I was lucky to be able to interview him several years ago. He was a jovial, very humble, witty and outspoken interview partner, immediately called me brother, and yes, he was larger than life. So instead of telling his story here once…
Here are two must-haves on the German ACT Music label: “Arcs & Rivers”, an album by Swedish award-winning pianist and composer Joel Lyssarides and Greek bouzouki player Georgios Prokopiou, based in Sweden, came out in late September. And today sees the release of the second duo album by Bill Laurance and Michael League. Both albums…
Nø Førmat, the exceptional label which brought us the music of Lucas Santtana, Chilly Gonzales, or Nicolas Repac, celebrates its 20th anniversary with a concert in Berlin’s Emmauskirche on November 13th. The label, based in Paris and Johannesburg, will present some of its current artists: the Japanese pianist and composer Koki Nakano, now based in…
I’ve seen drummer/percussionist Abraham Rounds several times this year during Meshell Ndegeocello‘s residency at the North Sea Jazz Festival. He is not only a pretty energetic and emotional percussionist, but a great singer too. Which he proved on several occasions, like the night Meshell was celebrating the music of Gary Bartz and Eugene McDaniels. I…